According to The Bell and the Financial Times, Russia is preparing to "absorb" foreign companies that have not yet left the Russian market. According to the journalists, the Kremlin lacks money, so in this way it wants to fill the "holes" in the state budget.
The regime of the Russian Federation, on the instructions of the Kremlin leadership, should make it as difficult as possible for Western companies to leave the Russian market. According to The Bell and the Financial Times, Russia actually wants to nationalize the assets of foreign companies, transfer their assets to Russian companies, and the latter will have to place 20% of their shares on the Moscow stock exchange.
Until now, the regime has forced companies leaving the Russian market to sell their assets at half price and pay a tax of 10-15% of the value.
According to FT sources, the most active advocate of the threat of nationalization is the head of the National Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina. In this way, she wants to prevent the exit of Western businesses and capital outflow, which could weaken the ruble and limit the opportunities for Russian investors.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov supports the exodus of foreigners in order to replenish the budget through the sale of their assets.
A businessman who spoke to the FT hopes to get out before nationalization begins. In his opinion, companies in the raw materials sector will suffer the most from the new policy, as Moscow tries to maximize export revenues. The impact on technology companies may not be as severe because they are more difficult to manage.
However, the largest oil and gas and technology companies have already curtailed their operations in Russia. Of the majors, only TotalEnergies remains a shareholder in Novatek and the Arctic LNG 2 project. However, BP, for example, still has a 19.9% stake in Rosneft, although it has written down its value and stopped including everything related to Rosneft in its reporting.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, several hundred Western companies closed their representative offices, shops and warehouses in Russia. Those who did not do so in the first weeks of the aggression may now lose their funds accumulated in Russia.